Children enjoy engaging in activities that are realistic, attractive, amusing and instructive. Children particularly enjoy imitating various activities encountered in everyday household life, including entertaining, cooking, and performing routine household chores, such as washing dishes. Toy kitchen sets enable children to participate in role playing, including entertaining, cooking, cleaning and assisting others.
Existing toy kitchen sets typically include a single upstanding structure having a general rectangular shape and a front play area. The toy kitchens typically include a number of conventional toy kitchen accessories accessible to a child from the front play area. The toy kitchen accessories can typically include a sink, a stove, a set of cabinets, a set of shelves, a microwave, a dishwasher, a refrigerator or other conventional accessories. Existing toy kitchen sets can also include a single counter top extension typically pivotally connected to the kitchen set.
Existing toy kitchens, however, have a number of drawbacks. Modern, full size kitchens often include an island which may be positioned apart from the other structures of the kitchen or may be positioned to outwardly extend from one of the structures of the kitchen. The islands can be equipped with any of the typical conventional kitchen accessories such as, for example, a sink, a stove, a set of cabinets and a set of shelves. Existing toy kitchens typically do not include an island. Existing toy kitchens also typically include only a single front play area, which is typically sized to generally only comfortably accommodate only one child. Additionally, existing toy kitchen sets are typically not reconfigurable to enhance the children's play and to maintain the children's attention for an extended period of time.
Thus, there is a continuing need for a toy kitchen set which includes an island having at least one toy kitchen accessory. What is needed is a toy kitchen which can be easily reconfigured into a number of different positions to attract and maintain the attention of children. There is also a continuing need for a toy kitchen set which defines distinct play areas for enabling more than one child to actively play with the toy kitchen. What is also needed is a toy kitchen that can be readily displayed within the existing shelving limitations of toy retailers.